Photograph album compiled by James B. Nicholson containing predominantly portrait photographs of prominent local and national
members of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and their families, including men, women, and children. Photographs depict
full-length, bust-length, and vignette portraits; group portraiture; and collages. Several male sitters wear the regalia of
the Odd Fellows and most sitters are fashionably attired. Group portraiture depicts employees of Pawson and Nicholson in front
of the bookbinding shop (139 S. Seventh), and rosters and meetings and excursions of members of the fraternal organization
(1870s-1880s), including Warrior Lodge, no. 873. Collages include portraits of the Rulafson family of San Francisco and examples
of work from the respected photographic firm Bradley & Rulafson. Also includes images of the photography department and sculpture
at the Centennial Exhibition (1876); photographic reproductions of a Sir Walter Scott manuscript donated to the Sanitary Fair
(1864), and an Odd Fellow membership certificate and medal; and a John Sartain engraved portrait of "E. Grand Captain General
of Pennsylvania" Varhan Smith.

Cataloging funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (PW-506-19-10), 2010-2012.

Album housed in phase box with index to sitters.

Biographical / historical note

James Bartram Nicholson was a premier Philadelphia bookbinder in the partnership Pawson & Nicholson established in 1848. He
was also a prominent member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows serving as a Grand Sire (1863-1864), grand scribe, and
grand secretary (1863-1901), as well as authored "I.O.O.F.: The Story of 65 or The History of the Grand Lodge of the United
States... (1896)." He married Adelaide Broadnix (b. ca. 1822) in 1841 and with her had three sons, Colonel John Page (1842-1922),
Howard B. (b. ca. 1855) and bookbinder Clarence S. Nicholson (b. ca. 1858) and a daughter Eliza (b. ca. 1852).